SAN JOSE, Calif. --
by John Boitnott, Web Producer

A grassroots political action group run partly by former Speaker of the House New Gingrich is setting up shop in the Silicon Valley.

"American Solutions for Winning the Future" announced Tuesday that its new office would serve as the organization's technology headquarters.

"To reach out for real change with the 513,000 elected officials (in America), you've got to use the Internet," Gingrich said in an announcement on YouTube. "You've got to use information technology. You've got to have the best techniques for bringing people together and for enabling people to work with each other."

The new office is located off Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park near the Stanford Linear Accelerator, Kralik said.

"From Obama's one million online donors to Ron Paul's money bomb, it's clear that the Internet has changed the way we do politics," said David Kralik, who blogs on the American Solutions Web site. "We've established an office in Silicon Valley because we want to be in the middle of innovation and entrepreneurship and gain firsthand knowledge of the latest technological developments that will continue to change online politics. In short, we want to utilize new technologies that will help us communicate and organize more effectively -- before it becomes a trend."

In the announcement on the Web site AmericanSolutions.com, Kralik said he was excited about what he believes is a chance to "learn from the best of the private sector."

"We believe it's possible to create a world that works and to move the bureaucracies of the past - obsolete, slow, cumbersome, paper-based institutions - into a very dynamic, networked, information technology future," Gingrich said.

Officials with the group said an example of this occurred when Gingrich made an appearance in the virtual world of Second Life for a workshop in September.

"As the competition for web superiority continues, American Solutions will be learning, collaborating, and leading on how we can use the Internet to communicate more effectively and move government into the 21st century," Kralik said.

In a statement released to the media Tuesday, organization officials described "Solutions" as a nonpartisan group built around three goals: to defend America and its allies abroad and defeat their enemies, to strengthen and revitalize America's core values, and to move the government into the 21st Century.

Gingrich is the group's "general chairman." The group does not endorse or oppose candidates, according to Kralik.